TLA Announces Upcoming Symposium on Performance Deconstruction

Theatre Library Association is pleased to announce its upcoming Symposium on performance deconstruction, specifically related to issues of reinterpreting the classical repertory. Titled Detonating the Classics?: Radical Adaptations and Textual Reinterpretation, it will be held at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Bruno Walter Auditorium on Friday, May 22, 2009.

This Symposium is third in a trilogy related to performance documentation. The first, held in 2003, dealt with documenting performing arts in an online environment. Last year’s explored reconstruction challenges with lost or rediscovered texts, dance works and musical theatre. Now we’re interested in having a dialogue between librarians, archivists, and artists who explode classical texts in search for new meanings and resonances.

The Symposium III Planning Committee has developed the following Mission Statement:

Experimental directors, innovative designers, and translators/adapters have approached the classical repertory as fertile ground for reinvention.  Do performing artists have an ethical responsibility to respect the integrity of original texts?  Are these texts sacred – or do they function as minefields for subsequent generations, waiting to be excavated to reveal new meanings and fresh interpretations?

How have performing arts libraries and archives supported contemporary deconstructions of the classics – and how might they continue in the future? Do these collections actually serve as keepers of the flame or as co-conspirators?  Is the ultimate result detonation or de-notation?

Following a Keynote address from a prominent theatre director or practitioner, the Symposium will be organized into three thematic panels:

Directing and Design – investigating interpretation, staging and visual reconceptions of classical works

Text and Translation – issues of faithfulness, integrity and cultural expression

Performance – the dynamic between classical and contemporary performance styles

We’re in the process of recruiting panelists, which should represent the diversity of the Downtown performance scene. As with Symposium II, we would like to incorporate live performance to enhance and enrich this discussion.

Please continue to monitor BROADSIDE and TLA Promptbooks for upcoming announcements confirming participants and program content. If you would like additional information, please contact either Susan Mosakowski, smosakowski@nypl.org , or Kenneth Schlesinger, Kenneth.Schlesinger@lehman.cuny.edu .